Peerless Cars History

History

This is the history of the brand Peerless since the establishment of the company and up to the most modern of vehicles produced under this brand.

Classic Cars

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Peerless

Bernard "Bernie" Rodger in the early 50 's. was a mechanic in the racing teams. With experience , he was invited in 1956 by former racers John Gordon and James Byrnes to create a company for the production of racing cars. The first was born Peerless GT, objective evidence of how worthwhile, but really worked through the idea , turns a complete failure from a commercial point of view.

The prototype , created by Roger , was a two-door car with a capacity of 2 +2 . She was named in honor of Warwick ancient city with a rich history . The frame on the fashion consisted of tubular elements . John Grdona contribution to the cause was the fact that he owned the company Peerless Motors of Slo - the leading seller of Jaguar cars in Buckinghamshire . It was there in 1958, began production of the model, in connection with which it has received the proud title of Peerless ( in translation - " unmatched " ) .

Option "GT" and continued to produce after the company chan Peerless ceased to exist. He was named Warwick. The photo is a sample of 1961
The first copy had a steel body . Already in the assembly machine , it became clear that in this form it is very labor-intensive. It was decided to order the metal sample batch of fiberglass -acoustic body the firm James Wilson.

In purely promotional Peerless one of the cars was put up at the start of the 24- hour race at Le Mans. In the course of it has shown himself well . However, demand for the car remained low , and last but not least the price. Enterprise novice was hard to resist such well-known manufacturers of sports car-like , say , Jaguar.

The main problem of the company , however, was a severe shortage of capital . Therefore, the future of the brand Peerless depended primarily on its ability to sell all the cars before they are built. Otherwise, the money of their production to take it anywhere. This condition severely limited the ability of firms to exit the international markets. Eventually run out of money by March 1960

A short time later revived the project under the name Bernard Rodger Developments. An improved version of the car Peerless, which brought it back to the original name of Warwick, started producing in Horton , near London's Heathrow Airport. New Warwick was more sophisticated and better elaborated . But it was worth more, so it was reborn firm managed to build and sell a few cars before finally closed its doors .

Peerless GT

Company Peerless offered relatively inexpensive model class "Grand Turing" with a good performance by using the suspension components serially produced vehicles . Trying to attack the "head " on sport routes representatives of the British " Big Five" was unreasonable, and Bernie Roger decided to offer customers something different.

He has created a car with a body capacity of 2 +2 coupe with a tubular frame and rear suspension de Dion. Having tried and discarding a number of other structures were even more expensive , he opted for the rectangular tube for the frame and fiberglass for the body.

The engine, transmission and front suspension taken from the Triumph TR3A, which was considered at the time one of the most successful British sports cars. With a compact and lightweight body of a top speed exceeding 160 km / h

Early examples suffered from low build quality and a high level of internal noise . However, automobiles sold out , albeit slowly. Manufacturers put a copy of the 24- hour race in 1958 at Le Mans. Racers Peter Jopp and Percy Crabb showed a very good result , finishing in 16th place with an average speed of 135.6 km / h , fully confirming the stability and performance, has shown the usual options of the car.

Even before the Le Mans 43 order was made on the machine. Immediately after the race firm said that by the end of the year plans to produce 20 cars a week. The vague prospects of entering the U.S. market and to achieve annual production of 2,000 vehicles . But these plans rested on a chronic lack of funds.

Peerless project afloat for two years. Few people in Britain was ready to shell out 1493 f.st. for gruff car on the move and in execution. Triumph TR3A hard top was worth while f.st. 1102 , and Jaguar XK150 coupe was offered for 1764 f.st. In two years, have released 328 cars Peerless. Have survived a few instances .

Latest classic Peerless cars offered in listings in the United Kingdom: